A Tay wedding night

The traditional Tay wedding boasts some of the most fascinating and romantic of all the ethnic minority marriage customs. It may seem strange that only after many years of living in the city did I, a member of the Tay ethnic minority, finally discover and understand the significance of my people’s traditional marriage customs. Perhaps my “discovery” was a subjective one; however, I truly believe that Tay ethnic marriage customs are no less sweet or romantic in comparison with what I have seen in the city. In fact, in my opinion they are considerably more interesting. I was seven years old when my eldest brother got married. My family was the richest in the village, so the wedding was a very lively affair. In truth, it was the most impressive wedding I have ever seen. My father slaughtered more than 10 pigs and prepared 30 jars of wines and the whole village ate, drank and made merry for more than five days. After the wedding, our five-compartment stilted house was sticky with grease from top to bottom while the smell of smoke still wafted through the air. That was also the first time I had ever seen a Tay bride. She was a very shy young mountain girl aged around 15, trying hard to hide herself in the special wedding chamber which my father had hired two carpenters to build inside our stilted house. My sister-in-law’s dowry was no less impressive. It included six pack horses, 20 colourful brocade blankets…